Ink jet printers are one type of apparatus for depositing drops on a substrate Ink jet printers typically include an ink path from an ink supply to a nozzle opening from which ink drops are ejected. Ink drop ejection is typically controlled by pressurizing ink in the ink path with an actuator, which may be, for example, a piezoelectric deflector, a thermal bubble jet generator, or an electrostatically deflected element. A typical print assembly has an array of ink paths with corresponding nozzle openings and associated actuators. Drop ejection from each nozzle opening can be independently controlled. In a drop-on-demand print assembly, each actuator is fired to selectively eject a drop at a specific pixel location of an image as the print assembly and a printing substrate are moved relative to one another. In high performance print assemblies, the nozzle openings typically have a diameter of 50 microns or less, e.g., around 25 microns, and are separated at a pitch of 100-1200 nozzles/inch.
A piezoelectric actuator has a layer of piezoelectric material, which changes geometry in response to an applied voltage. The change in geometry of the piezoelectric layer and a corresponding bending of a membrane adjacent to the piezoelectric layer pressurizes ink in a pumping chamber located along the ink path. Piezoelectric ink-jet print assemblies are also described in Fishbeck et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,227, Hine U.S. Pat. No. 4,937,598, Moynihan et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,659,346 and Hoisington U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,391, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.